Cincinnati, OH- As the calendar turns to fall and temperatures outside cool off, the high school theatre season is just about to heat up.
Enter stage right, The Cappies.
The Cappies is an international organization dedicated to recognizing high school theatre and journalism students, with 12 active chapters across the United States and Canada, including a chapter right here in the Greater Cincinnati Area; which encompasses high school theatre programs from both Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The Critics and Awards Program strives to recognize Greater Cincinnati’s talented community of young writers, performers, and technical crews. High school theatre and journalism students who participate in the Cappies program are trained as critics, attend shows at other schools, and write and publish reviews. At the end of the school year, the student critics vote to give awards to their fellow students for outstanding productions, group and individual performances, and achievements in technical categories. Awards are presented at the annual Cappies Gala. Below are the shows at area high schools that will perform as part of the Cappies Season this year.
William Mason High School
Clue: High School Edition
By Sandy Rustin
Based on the Paramount film and the Hasbro board game, the stage show is adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn with additional material by Hunter Foster, Sandy Rustin and Eric Price.
Performance Dates:
October 21, 22, 28, 29, 2022
Mason High School Studio Theater
6100 S. Mason Montgomery Road
Mason, OH 45040
The show is described as a “murder-mystery comedy thriller” that follows six guests at a mysterious dinner party where they find themselves implicated as murder suspects when their host ends up the victim of foul play. Wadsworth, the butler, leads Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Colonel Mustard, and other guests attempt to find the killer in this comic whodunit.
The show is rated PG for mild adult language, adult situations, and foul play. It is best suited for students middle school aged and up.
Tickets are $15 Reserved, $10 General Admission, and $8 Students, Seniors, and Children. Tickets and can be purchased at masondrama.com
Campbell County High School
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Play Version)
By C.G Bond
Performance Dates:
October 27-29, 2022 at 7 p.m.
October 29, 2022 at 2 p.m.
Campbell County High School Auditorium
909 Camel Crossing
Alexandria, KY 41001
In this version of the old melodrama, Todd has some grounds for his nefarious activities: he was separated from his family and his daughter abandoned, while he himself was deported on a false charge. He returns to avenge his family, sets up with Mrs. Lovett, the pie maker, and provides her with fillings for her pies. He proceeds with his vengeful plans but the outcome is bitterly ironic.
Tickets are $8 and can be purchased at cctheatrearts.org
Walnut Hills High School
Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Performance Dates:
November 3-5, 2022 at 7 p.m.
November 5, 2022 at 2 p.m.
Rick Steiner Black Box Theater
Walnut Hills High School
3250 Victory Parkway
Cincinnati, OH 45207
In one of the world’s most well-known tragedies, Macbeth, a popular Scottish noble and general is given a mysterious prophecy by three witches telling him he will be king. Spurred on by his wife and his own ambition and desires, Macbeth murders his way to the crown, losing his humanity along the way. Recommended for mature audiences 13 and up.
Tickets are $13 for adults and $11 for students, and can be purchased at https://sites.google.com/view/whhstheatredepartment/tickets
School for Creative and Performing Arts
The Wiz
Book by William F. Brown, Music and Lyrics by Charlie Smalls
From the story “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” by L. Frank Baum
Performance Dates:
November 3-6, 2022
School for Creative and Performing Arts
108 W. Central Parkway
Cincinnati, OH 45202
A beloved Broadway gem, The Wiz infuses L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” with a dazzling mix of rock, gospel and soul music. This timeless tale of Dorothy’s adventures through the Land of Oz is a fun, family-friendly, modern musical.
Tickets are $15.00-$20.00 and can be purchased at https://scpa.cps-k12.org/news/box-office
Ursuline Academy
Seussical: The Musical
Music and Book by Stephen Flaherty and Lyrics and Book by Lynn Ahrens
Co-conceived by Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens, and Eric Idle
Based on the Works of Dr. Seuss
Performance Dates:
November 10th – 12th, 2022 at 7p.m.
November 12th, 2022 at 2p.m.
5535 Pfeiffer Road
Cincinnati, OH 45242
Seussical the Musical is based on many of Dr. Seuss’ most famous children’s stories. These classic tales come together when two worlds collide. The story begins with Horton’s discovery of the Whos and follows his adventure to save the tiniest people in the universe. Although Horton’s selflessness is heroic, he faces ridicule from the other animals in the Jungle of Nool for believing in something he cannot see. Undaunted, Horton defends the Whos while caring for an abandoned egg. Seussical reminds audiences of the power a person can play in the life of another. Along the way some of the characters fall in love, fight for justice, have unexpected adventures, and some even save the world
Tickets are $8.00 for students and $10 for adults, and can be purchased at https://search.seatyourself.biz/webstore/accounts/ursulineacademy/buy-tix
Larry A. Ryle High School
Eurydice
By Sarah Ruhl
Performance Dates:
November 10-12, 2022
10379 US-42
Union, KY 41091
Eurydice reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice not through Orpheus’s infamous pilgrimage to retrieve his bridge, but through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. With contemporary characters, plot twists, and a script written to be a playground for designers, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.
Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/68191
Saint Ursula Academy
Little Women: The Musical
Book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland
Performance Dates:
November 10th – 12th. 2022 at 7pm
November 13th, 2022 @ 2pm
Saint Ursula Academy Theater
1339 E McMillan St.
Cincinnati OH 45206
Based on Louisa May Alcott’s life, Little Women follows the adventures of sisters, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March. Jo is trying to sell her stories for publication, but the publishers are not interested – her friend, Professor Bhaer, tells her that she has to do better and write more from herself. Begrudgingly taking this advice, Jo weaves the story of herself and her sisters and their experience growing up in Civil War America. Featuring beautiful music that was nominated for several Tony Awards, Drama Desk Awards and Outer Circle Critics Awards in the 2005 Broadway Season.
Loveland High School
The Wizard of Oz
Book by L. Frank Baum, Music and Lyrics by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg
Adapted by John Kane for the Royal Shakespeare Company; Based upon the Classic Motion Picture owned by Turner Entertainment Co. and distributed in all media by Warner Bros.
Performance Dates
November 16-19, 2022
Loveland High School
1 Tiger Trail
Loveland, OH 45140
The classic movie comes to life on the stage with all the characters you know and love.
Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto, are swept away by a tornado and end up in the Land of Oz. Dorothy needs the help of the local Wizard to get home to Kansas and sets off on the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City, making friends with the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion along the way, each of them with a request for the Wizard too. But their journey is fraught with attacks from a Wicked Witch who wants Dorothy’s magic slippers.
Tickets are $12 for students and senior citizens, $15 adults and can be purchased at https://lovelandhstheater.wixsite.com/lhsdrama/box-office
William Henry Harrison High School
The Addams Family: School Edition
Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa.
Based on Characters Created by Charles Addams.
Performance Dates:
November 18th and 19th, 2022
Martin Marietta Theatre
9860 West Road
Harrison, OH 45030
The Addams Family, a comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, features an original story and it’s every father’s nightmare: Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family–a man her parents have never met. And if that wasn’t upsetting enough, Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he’s never done before–keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.
Tickets are $10 for students and seniors, and $12 for adults. Tickets can be purchased at https://www.southwestschools.org
Taylor High School
Mama Mia
Book by Catherine Johnson, Music and Lyrics by Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson
Performance Date:
February 18, 2023 at 7 p.m.
Information not provided. Please contact the school for more information.
Highlands High School
Sweeney Todd (Musical Version)
Book by Hugh Wheeler, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Based on an adaptation by Christopher Bond
Performance Dates:
March 23rd-March 25, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.
March 26th, 2023 at 2p.m.
Highlands High School
2400 Memorial Pkwy
Fort Thomas, KY 41075
Stephen Sondheim’s and Hugh Wheeler’s tasty, thrilling, theatrical treat, Sweeney Todd, has simultaneously shocked, awed and delighted audiences across the world. An infamous tale, Sweeney Todd, an unjustly exiled barber, returns to nineteenth century London, seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett’s luck sharply shifts when Todd’s thirst for blood inspires the integration of an ingredient into her meat pies that has the people of London lining up… and the carnage has only just begun!
Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for students and can be purchased at www.highlandstheatre.com
Randall K. Cooper High School
Little Women: The Musical
Book By Allen Knee, Music By Jason Howland, Lyrics by Mindi Dickstein
Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott
Performance Dates:
March 23 and 24, 2023 at 7 pm
March 25, 2023 at 1 p.m. and 7 pm
Randall Cooper High School
2855 Longbranch Rd.
Union, KY 41091
Little Women: The Musical follows the adventures of the four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, and their beloved Marmee who works at raising the girls alone in Concord, Massachusetts, while their father is a Chaplain for the Civil War Army. With help from their friends and neighbors, the girls are able to grow into astonishing women and fulfill their dreams, despite also suffering a tragic loss.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students, and can be purchased at www.cooper.boone.kyschools.us
Mercy McAuley High School
Seussical the Musical
Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty
Co-conceived by Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens, and Eric Idle
Based on the Works of Dr. Seuss
Performance Dates:
March 24-26, 2023
Mercy McAuley High School
6000 Oakwood Ave.
Cincinnati, OH 45224
Join Mercy McAuley Theatre as we meet all of Dr. Seuss’ most beloved characters in a journey of friendship and family. Fun for the whole family!
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at mercymcauley.booktix.com
Colerain High School
Clue: High School Edition
By Sandy Rustin
Based on the Paramount film and the Hasbro board game, the stage show is adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn with additional material by Hunter Foster, Sandy Rustin and Eric Price.
Performance Dates:
March 24-26, 2023
Colerain High School
8801 Cheviot Rd
Cincinnati OH 45251
Based on the Paramount Pictures movie, the stage adaptation of the Hasbro board game features all of its iconic characters. When six strangers are invited to a dinner party at the Boddy Mansion, they discover that their host has been murdered. They are all suspects in this comedic whodunit mystery.
Tickets are $8 for students and $10 for adults, and can be purchased at chsdrama.booktix.com
Roger Bacon High School
We Will Rock You: School Edition
Music and Lyrics by QUEEN
Story and Script by Ben Elton
School Edition prepared by Stuart Morley
Performance Dates:
March 30-April 2, 2023
Roger Bacon High School Fine Arts Center
4320 Vine St.
Cincinnati, OH 45217
This musical tells the story of a group of Bohemians who struggle to restore the free exchange of thought and fashion, and live music in a distant future where everyone dresses, thinks, and acts the same. Musical instruments and composers are forbidden and ROCK music is all but unknown.
Featuring the music of QUEEN, this big, brash, in your face show is a number one hit!
TIckets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students. Tickets can be purchased at www.RogerBaconFineArts.com
Nominees for this season will be announced Friday, April 14, 2023, and the annual Cappies Awards Gala will be held at The Procter and Gamble Hall at the Aronoff Center for the Arts on Sunday, May 7, 2023 at 7:30 p.m.
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 